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U.S. Asserts Terror Suspect Has Implicated Himself

A federal prosecutor in Manhattan told a judge on Tuesday that a Libyan man brought to the United States for prosecution on conspiracy charges after being held in military custody aboard a Navy ship made an incriminating statement to the authorities after being advised of his Miranda rights.

The assertion is the first time prosecutors have said publicly that the defendant, Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai, 49, spoke to law enforcement officials and implicated himself in criminal activity after he was placed under arrest on Oct. 12.

Mr. Ruqai, who was captured in Tripoli, Libya, on Oct. 5, was held in military custody for a week and was reportedly interrogated for intelligence purposes without being advised of his rights. A week later, he was transferred into the Justice Department’s custody when his chronic health problems worsened aboard the vessel, the San Antonio, after he stopped eating and drinking. Once in the United States, he was taken to a medical facility and his condition improved, officials have said.

Mr. Ruqai faces conspiracy charges stemming from Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of two United States Embassies in East Africa. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges.

The prosecutor, Nicholas J. Lewin, revealed the existence of the incriminating statement in a hearing in Federal District Court before Judge Lewis A. Kaplan during a discussion about discovery materials that the government would be providing to Mr. Ruqai’s lawyer. The prosecutor offered no additional details about the statement by Mr. Ruqai, who is also known as Abu Anas al-Libi.

Mr. Ruqai, who had been represented by public defenders, also received a new lawyer on Tuesday: Bernard V. Kleinman, who is also the longtime lawyer for Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who is serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The judge also indicated he was considering a government request that Mr. Ruqai be tried jointly with two other terrorist defendants who were extradited from Britain last year.

A version of this article appears in print on October 23, 2013, on Page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Asserts Terror Suspect Has Implicated Himself. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe